The State Department sanctioned the Iran Space Agency, the Iran Space and Research Center and the Astronautics Research Institute for activities relating to weapons proliferation, manufacture, transport and use, according to a Dec. 2 notice. The sanctions block all U.S. property belong to the agency, property of people or companies who exported goods or provided support to the agencies and any companies owned by the agencies. The notice provides primary and alternative addresses for each of the agencies, which are based in Iran.

The State Department is removing sanctions on Buhary Seyed Abu Tahir, a Sri Lankan national and “key middleman” of the A.Q. Khan nuclear procurement network that was sanctioned in 2009, the agency said Dec. 2. Tahir was sanctioned under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Prevention Act and the Export-Import Bank Act of 1945, the agency said. The agency did not provide a reason the sanctions were being removed.

China announced sanctions on five U.S. non-government organizations and said U.S. military ships and aircraft will not be allowed to visit Hong Kong, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Dec. 2. The sanctions were in response to the U.S. passage of the Hong Kong Human Rights and Democracy Act, which President Donald Trump signed into law last week (see 1911290012). The sanctioned organizations include the National Endowment for Democracy, the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs, the International Republican Institute, Human Rights Watch and Freedom House.

As CBP prepares to launch its electronic export manifest system, the agency should increase collaboration with stakeholders, provide clear guidelines for regulators and eliminate redundant data requirements, the Commercial Customs Operations Advisory Committee’s Export Modernization Working Group said in proposed recommendations. The recommendations were released this month ahead of COAC’s Dec. 4 public meeting.

Kenya introduced several tax-related measures that may have direct and indirect impacts on traders and shippers, KPMG said in a Nov. 26 post. Several value-added tax measures broaden the scope of the definition of “supply of imported services” to people who may not be registered for VAT, the post said, and expand the scope of supplies subject to VAT to include goods purchased online. Kenya also introduced “expanded relief for goods exported from special economic zones” and a larger list of “supplies” exempt from VAT, including “plant, machinery and equipment” used with certain “plastics recycling plants,” as well as certain corn, flour and wheat products. Another measure expands the scope of taxable income of “non-resident ship owners” to include payments from “demurrage and detention of containers at a port,” KPMG said.

Costa Rica recently published a definition for “strategic sectors” to determine which goods qualify for those sectors and are subject to preferential treatment, KPMG said in a Nov. 26 alert. The definition indicates which industries “qualify as strategic,” specifying they must be strategic for the “development of Costa Rica” to benefit from the country’s Free-Trade Zone System, KPMG said. Costa Rica also published certain exclusions from the strategic sectors, including products in the financial sector, the mining of hydrocarbons, the production of weapons and ammunition, and electricity generation (except for self-consumption).

Hong Kong has suspended imports of U.S. romaine lettuce in any form from Salinas, California, effective Nov. 23, according to a Nov. 25 U.S Department of Agriculture Foreign Agricultural Service report. The ban arose from a “possible contamination” of romaine lettuce from California with E.coli, USDA said. Hong Kong previously banned romaine imports from Arizona and California, and lifted a ban on lettuce from Arizona in March stemming from an E. coli outbreak in 2018 (see 1903060032).

The U.S. Department of Agriculture released a report on China’s recent decision to allow imports of U.S. poultry products (see 1911140019). The report, released Nov. 25, lists steps exporters need to take to be able to export to China and provides information for how “federally inspected establishments” can apply to become exporters. This includes approval by the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service and China’s General Administration of Customs. All shipments must also include an import permit obtained by the Chinese importer, an “advance electronic notification” sent to China of the shipment, and they may be subject to border clearance and testing by Chinese customs, the report said.

The recently released annual reports to Congress on reviews conducted by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. in 2016 and 2017 (see 1911220060) show an “upward trend” in the number of notifications filed with CFIUS, according to a Nov. 26 post by Thompson Hine. In particular, voluntary notifications for filings in the finance, information and services sectors during the 2016-2017 period (see 1911220060) were particularly high, the post said. For the 2015-2017 period, acquisitions involving Chinese investors accounted for the largest number of CFIUS notices -- about 26 percent of all notices, the post said. In addition, the use of “mitigating measures to obtain CFIUS approval is increasing,” the law firm said. Mitigating agreements -- or agreements put in place by CFIUS agencies that “feel that” certain conditions must be met to ensure compliance and to mitigate potential risk to U.S. national security -- were involved in 18 transactions in 2016 and jumped to 29 transactions in 2017, the post said.

Easing tariffs on U.S. pork exports to China would significantly help both the U.S. agricultural economy and the U.S.’s trade deficit with China, the National Pork Producers Council said in a Nov. 26 press release. An analysis by the NPPC and Iowa State University shows U.S. pork sales would generate more than $24 billion in sales over the next 10 years if tariffs on imports to China were eliminated. “Were it not for China’s tariffs that are severely limiting access to American goods and other restrictions, including customs clearance delays, U.S. pork could be an economic powerhouse, creating thousands of new jobs, expanding sales and dramatically slashing our nation’s trade deficit,” Iowa State University economist Dermot Hayes said in a statement.